Needing two wins to finish the season over the .500 mark, the Mud Hens were looking for a second consecutive victory over International League West Division foe Indianapolis Indians.Despite two hits from Tyler Collins and as many from Brendan Ryan, Toledo came up short in a slugfest; falling by a
Needing two wins to finish the season over the .500 mark, the Mud Hens were looking for a second consecutive victory over International League West Division foe Indianapolis Indians.
Despite two hits from Tyler Collins and as many from Brendan Ryan, Toledo came up short in a slugfest; falling by a count of 12-3.
Anthony Vasquez was the starting pitcher for the Mud Hens and did not close out his season on a high note. The left-hander did not make it out of the first inning -- recording just two outs -- while walking two, allowing five hits and six earned runs.
Casey Sadler was his opponent for the Indians and was able to fair a bit better. He lasted six innings and allowed three earned runs to qualify for a quality start.
The Indians were able to jump on Vasquez early on, as Kevin Newman led off with a walk and Gift Ngoepe followed up with a triple that scored Newman. Ngoepe was able to score himself as Luis Valdes made an errant throw trying to cut the Indians third baseman down on the basepaths.
Unfortunately for Vasquez, the onslaught did not stop there as the Indians loaded the bases on singles by Danny Ortiz and Joey Terdoslavich and a walk by Edwin Espinal. Eric Wood singled through the hole between shortstop and second base to score two more runs and make it 4-0 in the first. It wasn't over there either, as Anderson Feliz ripped a single to left field that scored two more on top of that to chase Vasquez from the game.
It didn't take long for the Mud Hens to answer back. Jim Adduci and Luis Valdes went back-to-back with singles to lead off the inning and Tyler Collins took advantage of the opportunity with a triple that scored two. Collins scored himself on a groundout by Jason Krizan and the lead was cut in half.
The Indians lead grew in the top of the third against newest Mud Hens reliever Kurt Spomer. Espinal and Wood reached on singles with one out and Barrett Barnes was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Feliz took advantage again, this time with a groundout that scored Espinal and stretched the lead to 7-3.
The scoring didn't stop there for Indianapolis either, as the Indians continued to take it to the Toledo bullpen. Newman singled against Bryan Garcia -- who then exited the game with an injury -- and Ngoepe followed up with a single of his own against Kyle Ryan. Jacob Stallings came through for the Indians with a two-out single that made it 8-3.
That lead grew to eight in the top of the seventh. Barnes singled and Feliz doubled with one out against Logan Kensing and Newman came through once again, this time with a double that plated Barnes and pushed the Indianapolis lead to 10-3. Justin Maffei came to the plate after him and ripped a single that made it an 11-3 game. It wasn't over there either, as Stallings slapped another single to move the fourth Indianapolis run of the inning across the plate and pushed their lead to 12-3.
Mud Hens catcher Miguel Gonzalez came on to pitch the eighth inning and carried on through the ninth; he continued his season-long excellence on the mound. Now with five appearances under his belt for the 2017 season, the right-hander has given up just one run over 6.1 innings of work and he has mustered up two strikeouts.
Despite the best efforts of Gonzalez on the mound, the Mud Hens bats were held silent throughout the final two innings of this contest and they fell by a count of 12-3.
The Mud Hens close out the season on Monday afternoon. First pitch is set for 1:05 PM.
